ABOUT FRANKIE
Writer. Sports fan. Dog mom. Chaotic at best.
I write steamy, funny sports romance about athletes and blue-collar heroes who fall hard for one person and have zero chill about it.
I write spicy minor-league hockey romance. Two series: the Northside Rebels — five standalone-but-connected steamy hockey romances set in a fading Pennsylvania steel town, complete on Amazon — and the Tideline Tigers, set on the coast of Maine, where another ECHL team is fighting to save its rink, its town, and one specific captain who came home to retire and ran headfirst into the new GM instead. The banter is sharp. The spice is high. The teammates are ridiculous. The feelings are real.
I played college soccer (Division II, midfielder, the knee injury is a whole thing). I watch more hockey than is probably healthy for someone who is supposed to be writing. I live somewhere warm with good tacos, and I share a one-bedroom apartment with a rescue mutt named Potato who has never once been impressed by a word count.
My books are for readers who want banter that crackles, heroes who are soft for their person, and the kind of love story that makes you stay up way past your bedtime. I write in dual first-person present tense because I believe you deserve to be inside both their heads when it all falls apart and comes back together.
My writing process is approximately 40% panic, 30% coffee, 20% staring at the wall, and 10% actual typing. The math doesn't work. Neither does the process. But somehow books keep happening, and I'm not going to question it.
Frankie Kade is a pen name. The books are real. So is Potato.
POTATO
My rescue mutt. Approximately 40 pounds of attitude. Vaguely beagle-shaped. Sleeps on the couch, judges my choices, and has never once been impressed by my deadlines. She's my harshest critic and I would die for her.
"Potato looked at my manuscript, looked at me, and went back to sleep. The harshest review I've received and she didn't even use words."
What I re-read instead of writing
THE COMFORT STACK
The five books I cycle through the way other people cycle through playlists. If I'm not writing, I'm re-reading one of these. It's research. I'm researching. Shut up.
- 1
Grumpy-Sunshine Hockey
by The trope that built my bookshelf
"One monosyllabic captain. One person who refuses to be intimidated by silence. I will read this combination until I die."
- 2
Enemies-to-Lovers With Real Teeth
by The kind where the fight is earned
"Not the manufactured-misunderstanding kind. The kind where you understand exactly why these two were never going to like each other — and then you watch them be wrong about that."
- 3
Small-Town Found Family
by Where everyone knows everyone
"The bar where the bartender pours your drink before you ask. The diner that has been the same diner for sixty years. The team that IS the town. Yes."
- 4
Single-Dad Athletes
by The gentle-giant contrast trope
"Six-foot-four enforcer cradling a four-year-old. The 'oh no' moment hits every single time. I am not made of stone."
- 5
He Falls First
by Dual POV makes this trope
"Watching a man be completely, helplessly gone while she still thinks they are just colleagues is THE feeling. Give me his POV. Give me the exact paragraph where he knows."
WHY HOCKEY?
People ask me why I write hockey romance when I played soccer. Here's the thing: I love all sports. I watch hockey the way some people watch prestige TV — with my whole body, screaming at the screen, making my dog leave the room.
Hockey has everything a romance writer needs. Physical intensity. Protective instincts. Men who slam into walls for a living and then go home and are soft about one person. The locker room is basically a found-family sitcom. And minor league hockey? That's the sweet spot. These guys aren't millionaires. They drive used trucks. They eat at the team bar because rent is expensive and wings are cheap. They're one injury away from being done. The stakes are real.
Plus, if you don't think sports are romantic, you've never watched a team win in overtime after being down 3-1. That's a love story. I'm right.
STAY IN THE LOOP
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